A space probe operated by NASA captured a minor solar eruption on video in unbelievable details. The NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) filmed the event on August 13th during a two-hour period, showing the solar flare rising and then falling back into the Sun.

A minor solar eruption is challenging to observe, mainly if it takes place in the middle part of the Sun. However, it could be an observable event if it happens along the sun’s edge, also called limb. While such a solar flare is unseeable with the naked eye, the SDO’s extreme ultraviolet camera managed to capture it on video.

“Certain wavelengths either do not make it through Earth’s atmosphere or cannot be seen by our eyes, so we cannot use normal optical telescopes to look at the spectrum,” explained Dean Pesnell, the project scientist at the NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).

The Sun is a fireball of gas composed mostly of hydrogen and helium. At its peak, our star ejects plasma at speeds higher than 540,000 kilometers per hour and at distances that are a few times larger than the Earth’s diameter.

Besides, NASA’s SDO, launched in February 2010, has the mission to explore the Sun’s influence on our planet and help scientists learn more about the solar atmosphere.

Furthermore, the NASA’s scientists hope that they could come up with reliable models to predict when strong solar coronal mass ejections occur, which are massive emissions of plasma from the Sun’s corona. Also, they hope to forecast when powerful solar storms, formed by highly charged particles and radiations, take place.

But, for the moment, the NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured on video, in unbelievable details, a minor solar eruption which took place on August 13th.

Jasmine holds a Master’s in Journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto and writes professionally in a broad variety of genres. She has worked as a senior manager in public relations and communications for major telecommunication companies, and is the former Deputy Director for Media Relations with the Modern Coalition. Jasmine writes primarily in our LGBTTQQIAAP and Science section.